English

Tandem: the mobile app

Tandem is the mobile app for learning languages with amazing people all around the world. The Tandem language exchange community connects people from all around the world who want to learn new languages. Members form one-on-one Tandem partnerships to teach each other their native languages for free via text, audio and video chat. The app is available on iOS and Android.

Target language:

all

Language instruction:

all

Level:

all

Competence(s):

Speaking, reading, listening

Categories:

Pronunciation

Source:

Tandem - Mobile Language Exchange is licensed by Tandem Fundazioa

URL:

https://www.tandem.net/ 

Phonetics: The Sounds of American English

By means of a graphic animation of the speech organs, (which is also available as an App) this website allows you to look at the exact pronunciation of all American English sounds. Every sound is demonstrated in a short animated clip of the speaking organs, a clip of a real person pronouncing the sound as well as some audio examples of words which use the sound.

Target language:

English

Language instruction:

English

Level:

all

Competence(s):

Speaking

Categories:

Pronunciation

Source:

University of Iowa: Sounds of Speech

URL:

http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html

The English We Speak

Every episode of this podcast is built around a certain English expression like "to go around the houses", "to be all over the place", "mind-blowing", and many more. The hosts explain the meaning of the phrase, its different uses and give some examples. A transcript to read along is also available.

Target language:

English

Language instruction:

English

Level:

A2-B1

Competence(s):

Listening, Reading

Categories:

Podcasts, Idioms / Sayings

Source:

BBC Learning English

URL:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/the-english-we-speak

Academic Phrasebank

This resource contains a wide range of phrases used in English academic writing. You can find listings of widely used expressions according to different language functions (like "being critical", "classifying and listing", "defining terms", "describing trends", and many more listed on the left). For finding language functions structured according to the different parts of an academic paper, see the menu above for categories such as "introducing work", "referring to sources", "reporting results", "writing conclusions" and many more.

Target language:

English

Language instruction:

English

Level:

C1-C2

Competence(s):

Writing

Categories:

Academic language, Manuals & Tips, Expressions, Style

Source:

The University of Manchester

URL:

http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/introducing-work/

British Council Learn English

This website offers a great variety of tools for the practice of general, academic and business English. It provides relevant and practical material and aims at improving all four skills: speaking, reading, listening and writing. You can choose between different sorts of interesting media, such as podcasts, magazines, videos, games or interactive exercises. The website also offers useful essay structures and a free English level test.

Target language:

English

Language instruction:

English

Level:

A1-C1

Competence(s):

Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking

Categories:

English for general, business and academic purposes

Source:

British Council Learning English

URL:

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/

Exam English

This website offers a variety of resources concerning different official English exams. You can see what kind of official tests are available and how their scores can be compared, which grammar you should know for which level, etc. There is also a range of free tests to assess your skills (for example based on the CEFR) or practise a specific format of official testing (like TOEFL, IELTS, Cambridge, Pearson, and many more).

Target language:

English

Language instruction:

English (some sites in French, Spanish or Chinese)

Level:

all

Competence(s):

Grammar, Reading, Vocabulary, Listening, Speaking, Writing

Categories:

Tests, Learning strategies

Source:

Exam English Ltd.

URL:

http://www.examenglish.com

Get that Job

This resource offers some activities and exercises that help with job hunting. In the categories job search, CVs, covering letters, and interviews you can find useful advice on how to get a job.

Target language:

English

Language instruction:

English

Level:

B1-C1

Competence(s):

Listening, Reading, Vocabulary, Writing

Categories:

Language for professional purposes, Manuals & Tips, Exercises

Source:

BBC Learning English

URL:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/business/getthatjob/index.shtml

Smart Words

This website offers various resources for finding the right words to express yourself. Especially the first three sections, "Linking Words", "Words for...", and "List of Synonyms", provide interesting resources to help you find synonyms and the right words to say exactly what you want to say.

Target language:

English

Language instruction:

English

Level:

B1-C2

Competence(s):

Vocabulary, Reading

Categories:

Idioms / Sayings, Browse / Other

Source:

Dr. Heiko Possel

URL:

http://www.smart-words.org

engVid: Free English Video Lessons

This great resource offers hundreds of free video lessons on a wide range of topics, competences, levels, and teachers. Every video lesson is coded so that you can easily find videos of your level, your favorite teacher, a specific topic or the competence you want to improve via the search interface (click "All Videos" in the main menu to get there).

Target language:

English

Language instruction:

English

Level:

all

Competence(s):

Listening, Grammar, Vocabulary, Writing, Speaking

Categories:

Videos & Series, Manuals & Tips, Learning strategies

Source:

engVid

URL:

http://www.engvid.com/english-lessons/

Perfect English Grammar

This website offers explanations, video-tutorials and exercises for most important grammatical topics. You can also find tips on how to improve your reading, speaking, writing, and listening skills (click "Improve your English" on the menu on the left) as well as various pdfs with explanations for download (click "PDFs" on the menu on the left).

Target language:

English

Language instruction:

English

Level:

A2-C2

Competence(s):

Grammar

Categories:

Video & Series, Exercises, Manuals & Tips, Learning strategies

Source:

Perfect English Grammar

URL:

http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/learn-english-video.html

News in Level - World News for Students of English

This website offers current news articles in three different versions at different levels of difficulty for learners of English. Every version comes with audio; sometimes a video is available at level 3. Furthermore, you can find a glossary with English explanations of difficult words at the bottom of every article.

Target language:

English

Language instruction:

English

Level:

A1-B2

Competence(s):

Reading, Listening, Vocabulary

Categories:

News, Videos & Series

Source:

News in Level - World News for Students of English

URL:

http://www.newsinlevels.com

Anki - friendly, intelligent flashcards. Remembering things just became much easier.

Anki is a program which makes remembering things easy. Since it is content-agnostic and supports images, audio, videos and scientific markup (via LaTeX), the possibilities are endless. You can download the tool for free and, for example,  select a deck of cards of a language you would like to improve.

Target language:

English, French, German, Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish

Language instruction:

Multilingual

Level:

A1-C2

Competence(s):

Reading, Listening, Vocabulary

Categories:

Learning strategies, Exercises

Source:

URL:

http://ankisrs.net/

Lang-8

Lang-8 is a community website where you can communicate and find friends from all over the world. In the process, you can better your language abilities by getting your posts corrected by native speakers, and by correcting the posts of other users that are in your native language.  It is a unique, fun, give and take community that will knock your socks off when it comes to language learning. In addition, you may be able to find friends and make appointments for voice messaging or text chatting using Skype!

Target language:

Multilingual

Language instruction:

Multilingual

Level:

all levels

Competence(s):

Writing, Grammar, Vocabulary

Categories:

Learning strategies, Tips,

Source:

URL:

http://lang-8.com/